From My Heart To Pen – June 12, 2025
Before the earthquake, there was unity.
The bridge wasn’t just an architectural wonder. It was a gathering place; a symbol of connection, joy, and shared identity. On both sides of the Vitae River, people brought their differences and dreams to the same center. There was trade, laughter, love, family. A sacred wholeness that hummed beneath their daily lives.
And then, it fell.
The fall of the bridge in The Broken Bridge wasn’t just a physical event; this book is an allegory, the fall was spiritual, and deeply personal. It shattered relationships. It scattered hope. It carved a silent ache into every heart, not only because something collapsed, but because something that once held us together was gone.
We were made for that kind of unity. God designed our hearts not as isolated islands, but as living stones, meant to fit together, to carry each other, to be part of something larger than ourselves. In the garden, there was unity with God, with Adam and Eve, even with creation itself. But sin broke that bridge.
Now? We live in the shadow of disconnection.
Some of us feel it in fractured families. Others in the ache of loneliness, or church wounds, or unspoken grief. We might sit in a crowd and still feel miles from the hearts around us. We long for a bridge. For someone or something to gather the pieces again. At least I do.
In The Broken Bridge, Fidel feels this deeply. He carries the memory of wholeness like a weight and a promise. Even as others resign themselves to life divided, he holds fast to the belief that something better was, and still could be.
That’s what this story is really about: not just physical separation, but spiritual longing. The ache for home. The refusal to accept division as the end.
And it’s why the gospel is not just good news—it’s gathering news.
Jesus came not simply to forgive individual sins (though He absolutely does), but to reunite us; to God, and to each other. Ephesians 2:14 says, “He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Christ came as the true Bridge, and as He stretched out His arms on a cross, He stretched across the divide we could never bridge ourselves.
He is the only One who can restore what we lost.
So here’s the question I want to leave with you today:
Where do you feel disconnected right now?
Maybe it’s from a person. A purpose. Your church. Or even from God Himself.
Don’t rush past that ache. Don’t numb it. Bring it into the light of Christ’s healing love. He doesn’t ask you to rebuild the bridge on your own, He invites you to walk across the one He’s already laid down with His life.
This week, sit with the ache. And let it point you not to despair, but to the gathering place; the Cross, where all division is undone, and all who come are welcomed home.
Rejoicing in the one who built the bridge with his own death,
Mike
Good Evening, Pastor Mike!
"Don’t rush past that ache. Don’t numb it. Bring it into the light of Christ’s healing love."
You wrote that more than once, just with different words. It stuck. Thank You!
Long military service and multiple deployments introduced me to sorts and levels of pain I simply could not imagine before I started serving. Now that the pain is chronic, doctors have offered to 'kill' the nerve endings to dull the discomfort. I've always refused by telling them, "Why? It's the only part of me that seems to be working AS DESIGNED anymore!" 🤣😉
Your words resonate physically and spiritually because they're Scriptural. The Psalmist wrote, "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes" (Psalm 119:71). The Apostle Peter added a 'why' for pain when he wrote,
"Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, strengthen, confirm, and ground you." (1 Peter 5:6-10)
Pain God allows has a divine way of killing pride if I let God do His work in me (Philippians 2:13). Like sunlight is the best disinfectant, Jesus the Son knows how to clean us (1 John 1:7, 9). And, compared to eternity in heaven, the 'Son'burn and suffering will last just a little while!
Thank You again for posting this timely message. I'll be restacking it!
By His Grace, ATK